Thursday, August 27, 2009

California, what happened?

I've driven far too many times from Reno to Los Angeles in either direction. Depending on who you ask, the drive on the I-5 either sucks or is good. I like it because it's a quick shot and I enjoy seeing all the farms (especially since I have no sense of smell and can't smell the cows near Stockton!) Today I drove back home with my mom and my son to Reno and saw something shocking. Vacant lots. Where there weren't vacant lots of land, there were dying crops. Half the farmlands were completely dust or tumbleweeds on their way out of town to make room for dust. Then there were signs. Congress Created Dust Bowl. Not living in California, I had to ask my mom what was going on. Was this a result of the economy and farmers not getting subsidizing? Or not having enough money to pay people to work the land? Or not enough people making money to buy produce? What? She said it had something to do with their drout. It seems like everytime you turn around, California has a drout. When I was in the valley, she told me about how they have their water days and how we need to conserve water but I had no idea it was that bad. I mean, half of central California's crops are, well, dying, dead or gone. Then there were the other signs. Toilet To The Tap. Something about Sacramento and Stockton dumping sewage into the Delta and how Delta water is Aquaduct water. Basically most of the water sources people are getting in certain parts (well, the parts where you get the Aquaduct water) are getting reclaimed sewage water. Living up here and having my Tahoe Tap water and then drinking the fluoridated bubblegum tasting tap water down by my parents and then seeing that some parts of the state get reclaimed sewage water, well, it's enough to make you sick to your stomach. Anyway, this is all really bad. California is really having serious issues. The scary part: this all happened in 8 short months. When I was down in December and we drove down and back, all the crops were beautiful and green, there was even snow in the Grapevine. How is it that 8 months ago the state went from having green crops and snow in places that don't get snow to suddenly being told that there's not enough water and farmers are losing the ability to water their lands, keep their crops, save jobs, and save the state's produce? What's going on here? Something doesn't add up. One sign I saw a lot of but didn't get a picture of was No Water. No Jobs. = Higher Food Costs. It just doesn't make sense. Is there really a water shortage? Or is it a lie? What's the deal here?

Dust clouds kick up over a vacant lot at the slightest breeze...

No Water = No Food. That's for sure...

Toilet to tap. Yuck!

20 Million People Drink Delta Water. Again, yuck!Congress Created Dust Bowl. Gotta love a government that looks after it's people and tells them to wash dishes instead of use paper plates because it's more important to save trees when you can recycle paper plates from trees easier than you can recycle water. Let's not forget the fact you can always plant more trees. You can't make more water. I mean you probably could, but it's a lot harder than planting trees.